I caught two films in a row yesterday; the first was as good, but no better, as I had anticipated, the second was the best film of 2006...


The Departed
An engaging thriller, both very funny and often quite shocking - Scorsese manipulates the volume so well that the brutal gunshots and splatters of blood inject as much power as possible in otherwise more quieter moments. He has assembled another fine cast, with everybody in just the right place, including a show-stealer from Mark Wahlberg. It is of little visual interest, but is edited with the same pace as Cape Fear, and what begins as a casual, run-of-the-mill remake emerges as a powerful, thrilling, topsy-turvy exploration of masculinity, and, more specifically, rats ratting each other out and not getting away with it. Impressive.

Children of Men
Outstandingly-shot film, full of breathtaking sequences, using long takes and a hand-held, fiercely independent and roaming camera which restricts our view but enhances the immediacy of many incredibly complicated settings. The most impressive of these are the rebel attack on a car full of people, with the camera rotating three-sixty degress inside the car, before alighting and ending up left to observe two dead policemen as the car speeds off; the giving birth of a child in some worn-out, secluded safe house, with the very near threat of war and manic dogs outside; and the descent of a stairwell in a building at the heart of the fierce battle, with the relentless cry of a baby which, by the end of the shot, has silenced the guns and brought calm to a scene of devastation. It's genuinely thrilling, with a believable grittiness rarely seenin sci-fi; ultimately, life-enhancingly powerful.